With 189 member countries, staff from more 170 countries, and offices in over 130 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership: five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.

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The World Bank Group works in every major area of development. We provide a wide array of financial products and technical assistance, and we help countries share and apply innovative knowledge and solutions to the challenges they face.

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Global data and statistics, research and publications, and topics in poverty and development

We face big challenges to help the world’s poorest people and ensure that everyone sees benefits from economic growth. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress.

Featured

The World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise argues that without learning, education will fail to deliver on its promise to eliminate extreme poverty and create shared opportunity and prosperity for all.

Governments in 65 economies took steps to improve women’s economic inclusion, enacting 87 legal reforms in the past two years, however, women continue to face widespread barriers, entrenched in laws, that keep them out of jobs and prevent them from owning a business by restricting their access to credit or control over marital property.

Marking its 15th anniversary, the report notes that 3,188 business reforms have been carried out since it began monitoring the ease of doing business for domestic small and medium enterprises around the world.

Countries often measure GDP, but not wealth—the assets that produce GDP. A new publication provides 20 years of wealth data for 141 countries, providing governments with a fuller economic picture to guide sustainable development decisions.

This report brings to bear new evidence on the benefits and costs of international banking. Countries that are open to international banking can benefit from global flows of funds, knowledge, and opportunity, but the regulatory challenges are complex and, at times, daunting.

New and Noteworthy

Oil prices are forecast to average $65 a barrel over 2018, up from an average of $53 a barrel in 2017, on strong demand from consumers and restraint by oil producers, while metals prices are expected to rise 9 percent this year, also on a pickup in demand and supply constraints.

Access to financial services makes it easier to invest in health, education, and business, but 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked. The transformative power of fintech could bring financial services to millions.